Top 20 Principles and Badges Program for Teaching & Learning in Schools

The Center for Psychology in Schools and Education of the American Psychological Association created a Badges program in 2015 to recognize the school-wide use of psychological principles. The principles are based on the Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12 Thinking and Learning. There are 5 different categories of badges that any Pre-K-12 school (public or private) can apply for: Thinking and Learning, Motivation, Social–emotional learning, Classroom management, and Assessment. The application process involves school personnel providing an overview of the school practices in an area, and then providing evidence for each principle in that area. Applications are typically due in November and then APA conducts an initial screening and technical review. Schools can be awarded a 3-year badge, a 2-year badge or no badge, based on the final review.

When the program was created
The program was created in 2015 by the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education.

Principles from Psychology in Learning
Apply to the Badges Program here
 * General principles about Badges program
 * For an in-depth description of each of these principles, see the official APA PDF

Principles 1-8: Thinking and Learning

 * Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning.
 * What students already know affects their learning.
 * Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development.
 * Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated.
 * Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice.
 * Clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning.
 * Students’ self-regulation assists learning, and self-regulatory skills can be taught.
 * Student creativity can be fostered.

Principles 9-12: Motivation

 * Students tend to enjoy learning and perform better when they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated to achieve.
 * Students persist in the face of challenging tasks and process information more deeply when they adopt mastery goals rather than performance goals.
 * Teachers’ expectations about their students affect students’ opportunities to learn, their motivation, and their learning outcomes.
 * Setting goals that are short term (proximal), specific, and moderately challenging enhances motivation more than establishing goals that are long term (distal), general, and overly challenging.

Principles 13-15: Social-emotional Learning

 * Learning is situated within multiple social contexts.
 * Interpersonal relationships and communication are critical to both the teaching– learning process and the social-emotional development of students.
 * Emotional well-being influences educational performance, learning, and development.

Principles 16-17: Classroom Management

 * Expectations for classroom conduct and social interaction are learned and can be taught using proven principles of behavior and effective classroom instruction.
 * Effective classroom management is based on (a) setting and communicating high expectations, (b) consistently nurturing positive relationships, and (c) providing a high level of student support.

Principles 18-20: Assessment

 * Formative and summative assessments are both important and useful but require different approaches and interpretations.
 * Students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities are best measured with assessment processes grounded in psychological science with well-defined standards for quality and fairness.
 * Making sense of assessment data depends on clear, appropriate, and fair interpretation.

“Top 20” Badges Program
The Top 20 Badges Program is created by the APA that awards virtual badges to Pre-K-12 schools that use “evidence-based strategies to boost achievement and student well-being"

5 Badges and Schools Previously Awarded

 * Thinking and Learning
 * 2017: The Odyssey School (Pikesville, MD)
 * Motivation
 * 2017: Feynman School (Potomac, MD)
 * 2017: Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School (Frederick, MD)
 * Social-emotional learning
 * 2017: Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Lincolnshire, Illinois)
 * 2019: School for Gifted Learning (Sanford, Florida)
 * Classroom Management
 * No schools (as far as we know)
 * Assessment
 * No schools (as far as we know)

Benefits
A badge can be listed to appear on a state audit, annual review, students’ school report cards and used for website marketing to attract parents

Eligibility and selection requirements

 * All private and public Pre-K-12 schools are eligible to apply
 * Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education review applications.
 * Schools receive feedback for improvement in addition to obtaining a badge
 * All the schools that are awarded badges are cited on the APA website with a link to their webpages.
 * If a school was not awarded a badge for their application, the school may submit a new or revised application at another time.
 * Schools may apply for one badge or multiple badges.

Application process and requirements

 * Timeline
 * August-October: Call for submissions
 * November: All applications due
 * December: Review of submissions
 * January-February: Delivery of review to applicants
 * Private and public:
 * same criteria
 * Schools can apply for all 5 badges but one category per year
 * $75/application, $50 for resubmission
 * Who applies?
 * Administrators
 * PreK-12 teachers
 * Parent-teacher groups
 * Support professionals (School social workers, nurses, school psychologists)
 * Lifecycle of Application
 * Initial Screening of Application: During this phase the application will be reviewed for submission of all required information and documentation. Applications deemed incomplete will be returned to the applicant. The applicant may resubmit a complete application at no cost before the deadline.
 * Technical Review: During this phase applications will be reviewed based on the criteria posted online. The applicants will receive a summary of strengths and weaknesses of the application. The review may provide advice on future directions for continuous improvement.
 * Badge Determination: Applications will be recommended for a 3-year badge, a 2-year badge or no badge, based on the final review.